The Monstrous Hunter
by Flutter-Wry
Summary: In distant Moga village, a young Huntress gets fed up and decides to run away from it all - and falls right into a world of more monsters, some stranger than one could ever imagine, and the threat of an entire race being wiped out over a petty rivalry.
1. Chapter 1

Being the only hunter (or huntress, rather) in Moga Village _sucked_.

For one thing, whenever someone needed a monster killed out in the Woods, the Huntress had to run out and kill ASAP or else the thing would keep the whole village up and worried. She could rarely leave for the port because, oops, the old Wyverian at the farm needed an upgrade to the bug box so could you please run out and get this rare-hard-to-find/gather/carve item for me?

Sometimes, the Huntress just wanted to have one day - one little day! - off. Perhaps she could persuade one of the hunters in the Port to come to Moga and live there for a little while. Or she could finally give into the Chief's Son's pestering and train that little bra… boy of his to be a hunter.

"Oi! Huntress!"

The Huntress groaned mentally, reluctantly pausing on the bridge leading to Moga Woods as the Cheif's Son called to her.

"You know, my boy came of age yeste-" he began, beaming with pride.

"Yep."

She turned and started slowly walking off. She really, _really_ didn't want to go through with this. She had three quests piled up right now

"Which means he gets his first set of armor, and a wea-"

"_Yep_." The Huntress trotted a little quicker. Maybe if she ran, she would get there before the kid did.

"And I promised him he'd be coming with you on a hu-"

"_Okay_. I get it," the Huntress snapped. "What's in the Woods today anyways?" she said, desperately trying to change the subject.

"One Great Jaggi, small possibility of two… Oi! Keawe!"

The Huntress's teeth clenched together as the Chief's grandson trotted up towards his dad, resplendent in his green leather armor.

"Hi, Future Alpha Male," she managed through gritted teeth. "I guess you're coming with me today, huh?" There had to be three veins standing out on her forehead beneath her Hunter's Cap.

"Yeah, I can't even wait!" The kid pulled the smallsword from his belt and waved it around haphazardly. "I've made a whole list of the stuff I'm gonna hunt. First up is a Jaggi, then a Jaggia, then a Great Jaggi…"

The Chief's Son chuckled and clapped his kid on the shoulder. "Of course you are. You'll be the best hunter in Moga, just like your old grandad once was."

The Huntress felt a vein nearly burst at the words "best hunter in Moga", but swallowed her anger. This kid was going to end up being the Chief one day, when the current one finally went up, and as the only true hunter in the village, it was her responcibility to teach him how to hunt.

"Well, kid, let's get going," she said, trudging across the bridge. "Better start before the heat of the day hits."

If there was one piece of advice she had to give, it would certainly be "never be the only hunter in a village".

Because that _sucked._


	2. Chapter 2

Hey - hey, Ms. Huntress, watch this!"

"Yeah… yeah, I'm watching." The Huntress rubbed her eyes as the young boy under her watch leapt forward and sliced apart an unsuspecting Ludroth that had been lounging in the ninth area. He had done well for his first hunt; she'd rarely had to correct him on stances and which areas were which.

Perhaps he just had that hunting gene. That was very good. That meant she wouldn't have to tag after him as much.

"You know, it's getting dark," the Huntress said, hoping to get the day over with. "I'll let you kill one more and then we'll go."

The boy nodded and ran north to the tenth area as the Huntress followed reluctantly behind.

"Woah, Ms. Huntress, check this out!"

The Huntress's eyebrows raised as she and the kid emerged from the mist between the two areas, eyeing the beach.

"It looks like a boat wrecked and washed up here."

The kid was right - there were a bunch of wooden planks, along with some sort of paddle and a green and yellow cloth that might've been a sail. The Huntress gently rummaged through the soaked wood, looking for any signs of the sailor or their native land, but only finding a board that was covered in the bites marks of some large monster.

"See this, kid?"

She held the board up.

"These bite marks here; they look a lot like what Royal Ludroths do to small boats. First they bash them, then they chew up the boards."

Her mouth was arching up into a smile at the prospect of an R. Ludroth around… they were always fun to hunt. Plus the sponges made great brushes.

"So can we hunt a Royal one soon?" the boy asked, grinning.

"Well, if it comes up in the woods… I might, MIGHT, let you come along."

The Huntress gave her young charge a sideways glance.

"But if you get yourself hurt, I'm never taking you out again."

She stood and scanned the beach for any sign of the wrecked boat's pilot, hoping whoever was in charge of sailing it was a quick swimmer, as the boy hacked away at a small Ludroth that had crawled out from under a rock.

"Ha! I killed another one! That's… five monsters I killed now."

The boy beamed as he stood over the dead lizard.

"Dad'll be so proud."

_That's nothing, _the Huntress thought to herself. _I've killed far worse than that and I never got any thanks for it. _

"It's time to go," she muttered. "If there is indeed an R. Ludroth in that water, we don't want it finding us."

She turned and began trudging back towards the village gate - two days of training this kid, and she was already sick of it. Why her? Why not the boy's own dad? He didn't really hunt anymore, true, but at least he'd put up with the kid better, and give him the praise he deserved.

As she lay in bed that night, the Huntress's mind kept floating between the kid and the wreckage of the boat, dozens of questions swirling behind her temples. Who was on it? Where were they going? Why were they going there? How did they end up in Moga? Were they friends, or allies? Humans? Wyverians? Shakalaka? How many people were on it, and - most important - how many survived?

It was bugging her that she had no clue about any of them, especcially the last one. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. She was a huntress - a person sworn to serve and protect innocent people.

It wasn't too late to go out in the woods… maybe the boat's pilot had been hanging out in there.

She slipped out of bed and slipped on her Hunter's armor, strapping her Lagiacrus gunlance to her back.

She'd just run out into the woods right quick, and look around for the sailor. That was all.


	3. Chapter 3

It was cold in the woods - so cold that the Huntress considered running back to the village and donning her cold-resistant set of Wroggi armor - but she jogged through the first few areas anyway. She had no idea who or what to look for; she assumed that any friendly person who'd been shipwrecked by a large monster would come running to her for help when they saw her.

She really hoped that would be the case, anyways - she wouldn't want to risk monsters being attracted to her shouting.

"Hello…?" she said cautiously. No answer, save for the grunts of the sleeping Aptonoth in area two. She went on to area three, getting colder by the minute from slogging through the ankle deep water.

"Hey, listen, if anybody's around… I, uh…"

The Huntress felt very silly all of a sudden. Here she was, wandering around in the middle of the woods at night, shouting for a person or persons that probably weren't even there.

She huffed in annoyance and turned to go back home, when a _ping, ping, ping, ping, ping _sounded in her ear. She jumped in surprise, before calming down - it was just the autotracker going off. The five pings meant that a large monster was roaming in area five… it was most likely a Royal Ludroth, though it could just as well be a Qurupeco or even a Lagiacrus.

Either way, whatever it was wouldn't stand a chance against her gunlance.

A short trek to area 5, and her initial suspiscions were confirmed - it was a Royal Ludroth, laying around in the shallow water in the area. The Huntress's heart leapt at the sight of the sponge-maned lizard, and, drawing her gunlance, she crept towards it.

How good it felt to be facing down a large monster again! Her last hunt - after a Pink Rathian, had been three days ago, and she missed the old rush that came when she drove the bayonet of her gunlance into a monster's flank.

This monster was sleeping at the moment, so there wouldn't be the greatest possibility of the classical, charged hunt that the Huntress was used to, but it'd do.

She slipped into range, pointing the 'lance at the beast's head, and set the Wyvern's Fire to charge, bracing herself against the inevitable kickback. This Royal Ludroth was going to have a nasty wake-up call.

The Huntress watched the flame go orange, then blue, then white - then an immense explosion of shells and gunpowder burst from the end of the gunlance. The Huntress was pushed back from the blast, the ammo card of the weapon popping open to let the smoke out.

She grinned as she peeked over her shield to see the Ludroth's caved-in skull. The blast had killed the thing instantly, it had seemed. She swung the gunlance down and put it back on her back, to investigate the body, pulling her hunting knife out to carve out a hunk of sponge-mane.

"Uh… excuse mes."

"_Us. _Excuse _us_."

The Huntress jolted at the unexpected voices, whirling around to see about the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.

The best way she could describe the creature in front of her was as a four-armed, two-headed human with yellow skin and orange-striped jellyfish tentacles wearing one of those open jackets that the fishermen in the village liked to wear all the time.

"Who are you? More importantly, _what _are you?"

She stood up, facing the thing (things?). She wasn't really scared of them - they were rather frail-looking and didn't have any teeth or claws - but she still gripped her carving knife.

"Terry. Both Terry," the shorter head said, pointing at the other head.

"Sorry for broken Mogana. Learned at school," said the other.

The Huntress slid her knife back into its sheath.

"Hi, Terry. And… other Terry."

The names seemed a little odd to her - why name both of them the same name? - but she didn't worry too much.

"Did you happen to crash a boat up there?" she asked, pointing north.

"Yes… no… that thing crash us," the short Terry said, pointing at the dead Royal Ludroth.

"It came out of the… of the… you know. Wavy blue. We sailed, blown away from wind."

"Huh. And you've got nowhere to go."

"Yes! Maybe… come back with… you? To where your home?"

The Huntress tilted her head. These… people were in apparent trouble, and needed_somewhere _to go - it wasn't like they could live out in the woods. Then again, with the old chief being his stubborn self, he probably wouldn't let these people in the village in.

"I'll have to think about that."


	4. Chapter 4

The Huntress had left the two, uh, people (she still didn't know how to call them) in the Woods, with instructions to go straight to the base camp and not leave that area under any circumstances, then had gone to bed herself, unsure of what to do.

The moral thing would be to help them get back home; the selfish thing would be have them stay in the village. She had the feeling that maybe, just maybe, as their "savior" (as she undoubtably would've been; they stood no chance against the Ludroth) they would be endebted to her and she could teach them to hunt well enough to teach that kid…

You know, that actually was a good idea. They had four arms, so they could wield two pairs of dual blades or even two swords and two shields. Oh yes - that would work. She could bring the Bloodwings - no, the Glutton's Tools - with her when she went to train the boy in the morning.

—-

Morning came with the accompaniment by the characteristic shrieking notes from a Metal Bagpipe being played on the other side of the village. The Huntress bolted awake and covered her ears - the boy must've learned to play the hunting horn. She shuddered at the thought of him swinging it randomly and making horrid, flat notes spray out of it with no heed.

She threw herself out of bed, not even bothering herself with armor or weapons. She dug a few herbs and blue mushrooms out of the box; the two Terries were probably hungry after no food during the night.

"Hey, Ms. Huntress, what are we hunting today?"

"Nothing big," The Huntress replied, mind busy. "I met some people in the Woods yesterday; I'm getting them something to eat."

"Oh. Okay. By the way, I'm the new chief now."

"WHAT?!" The Huntress whirled around and gaped at the boy. There was no way that he was already chief! The old one was still alive, wasn't he?

"Yep! Grandad's named me chief, since he's getting on up there. He said I should do my chiefly duties and all since he's too old too do that."

The new Chief grinned at the Huntress, who felt like she falling into a bottomless hole. This boy wasn't a boy anymore - he was the Chief.

The most important person in the village.

The one who, if he wasn't trained properly, could die on a practice hunt.

And if that happened, it would be the Huntress's fault.


	5. Chapter 5

The Chief was dead. The Chief was dead! The Chief was… well, he wasn't_actually _dead, so to speak; he'd just passed the title to his grandson.

But he might as well have been dead, for all the fuss the villagers had been making about it. The Huntress couldn't believe it - not now that she had to take extra responsibility with the new Chief, not to mention the foreigners in the woods… she'd had to make a decision, and she'd taken the easy way out.

After she'd taken the boy out hunting for the day, she'd slipped back, threw Chamberlyne out in a small tantrum, wrestled her blue box onto a cart and, in the dead of night, had towed it all the way to base camp, where the Terries were sleeping. The Huntress had waken them up, and told them they had to move _now _because something had come up in her village and she couldn't stay any longer.

They'd reacted with some confusion at first, then with outright anger when she tried to muscle them into the boat that was anchored beside the camp.

"What's happened in your place, to be precise?" the one-horned Terri had asked as the Huntress threw the box onto the large craft.

"Everything! Well - mostly responsibility. I got myself into something I shouldn't have," she'd said, stepping into the boat and pulling the Terries in with her.

"Hey! We didn't agree to go -"

"Shut up!" The Huntress pulled the anchor up and piled it into the boat's back end, pulling at the starter for the motor. "I've got so much pressure on me that - HEY!"

She'd turned around to see the twins opened the chest for whatever reason, and had felt anger boiling inside her. That was her stuff, dammit! They shouldn't be touching it! The Huntress had lost it at that point - she could only remember starting the boat, then leaping at them. When she'd regained her senses, the foreigners had been lying on the boat's deck, blood dripping from their mouths and her fists.

A small sense of shame had flit through her at the sight of their unconsious forms, and she'd sailed off without another glace their way.

—-

"Yo, Ms Huntress, what're we…"

The new Chief paused as he entered the Huntress's house. The large box that had stored her equipment, along with her pillow and the little decorations were gone.

"Huntress…?"

"She's gone, meow," Chamberlyne said as she sadly swept the floorboards. "She came back yesterday, packed up her box and tossed meowt…" The felyne sniffed a bit. "She said she'd be leaving, and wouldn't come back again until she wouldn't have to train you, meow…"

"But… but she can't just LEAVE!" the new Chief said. "What if a Lagia-thing or something bigger attacked and… and - DAD!"

He turned and rushed out of the house.

"Dad! Dad! The Huntress's left!"

—-

Miles away, the monsters on the Huntress's boat were just beginning to wake up.

"I don't like it when you touch my stuff."

The Terries looked up at the Huntress, then down to the deck.

"Didn't have to punch us like that…" the taller one mumbled, brushing his cheek. There were several cuts, presumably from the Huntress's gauntlet.

"Where we going?" the other said, closing his eye. He felt a headache coming on.

The Huntress wrapped a hand around the tiller.

"Somewhere far, far away. Somewhere where I can actually do what I _want_."


	6. Chapter 6

As the boat had gotten farther and farther out to sea, the Huntress had thought more and more what a rash decision she was making. It had certainly been wrong of her to take the twins, even more so to punch them unconscious. Perhaps staying in the village and suffering under that ki… the new chief would be the better option, rather than take the twins off, train them as hunters, and return them to train the Chief…

The Huntress' head jerked up as she heard the two monsters talking in what was obviously their native tongue and pointing excitedly at an island in the distance.

"What's going on?"

"That's our house! Where we came from!" The one-horned twin flapped a hand at the lush landmass. "It's… house."

"Home?" the Huntress asked, giving the motor an extra boost.

"Yes, home!"

The Huntress grunted a little. On one hand, the large island looked large enough to provide adequate hunting grounds and shelter, but on the other hand, if this was indeed the Terries' homeland, they probably wouldn't want to stay in her company much longer… she stopped the boat and shoved the anchor off the side.

"Okay, guys… monsters… whatever you are." The Huntress sat cross-legged on the deck, facing the twins, who quickly scooted back a little. "If that really is your home, I'm going to make you a deal. I bring you there and let you mingle with your folks some. Then I'm going to take you out and train you as best as I can to a be hunters. After that, I'm bringing you back to Moga and have you train the new Chief. Got that?"

The two looked at each other, confused. "I… don't get it?" the shorter head said.

"It's a lot of work, it seems like."

"You could just let us go house - er, h-home…"

The Huntress growled in annoyance. "I am not going back to Moga. I might as well stay with you at your place…"

"Something odd in Moga?" The two-horned Terry asked, letting a few tentacles dangle in the water.

The Huntress sighed and rubbed her temples. "You have no idea…"

—-

"You! Blackspear! Get out to the shallows. Neko - bring the Wyverian Artisan and the Argosy Captian once he gets here and take them to Tanzia port."

The New Village Chief (as the boy was now called) issued orders as fast as he could think of them, heart beating in panic. He hoped she hadn't gone far…

"Can the Felynes at the farm drive a boat…? No…? That's fine. Send them out in the Woods to speak to the wild Felynes; I want their reports back before nightfall!" He looked up to see his father and the Guild Sweetheart returning from the woods.

"We looked everywhere!" the young woman panted. "I even swam around near base camp, but all I found were some bootprints… oh I do hope she isn't hurt!"

"Ay - the boat from there's gone, but that's all…" the Chief's Son - or rather, Chief's Father - said. "She must've gone sailing north, towards the old isles."

The New Chief sighed and returned to trying to group together the frightened thrum of villagers. Please, please, don't let her be angry… please let her come back soon…


End file.
